EU: Autonomous foreign and security policy
01 May 1999
European Union (EU) leaders agreed in June to develop an autonomous foreign and security policy, nominating NATO secretary-general Solana to head this initiative. The decision, made at the EU summit in Cologne, will lessen Europe's reliance on US power but is not meant as a break with NATO which remains the key European security mechanism. It was also agreed that the Western European Union is to be merged into the EU machinery over the next 18 months. A permanent political-military committee will be formed under the authori?ty of European foreign and defence ministers. The EU will also set up a European general staff, an intelligence unit and a strategic planning body. The 60,000 strong Eurocorps will be transformed into a rapid reaction force.
According to French president Chirac, the Eurocorps should be the centre of the new "European Defence Identity" (EDI). The UK has not given its position on membership yet. French and German leaders met at the biannual Franco-German summit in Toulouse on 29 May where Chirac, the French Prime Minister and the German Chancellor called on Europe to forge an autonomous military force that would be able to "decide and act on its own in the face of crisis". Chirac added that the EU would "not fully exist until it possessed an autonomous capacity for action".
The three leaders issued a "Toulouse Declaration" in favour of European defence, closely resembling the French-British statement in St Malo last December, which was a turning point as the Labour government broke with previous Conservative policy. However, some defence analysts doubt that Germany really wants Eurocorps to become a rapid intervention force. Bonn has neither the political inclination nor the military resources required to participate. Schroeder said that the decision to strengthen European defence reflected the EU's experience in the Bosnia and Kosovo crises. In Kosovo 90% of the command, control, communication and intelligence, 80% of the aircraft, and 33 of 35 satellites were supplied by the USA. However while the USA supplied one third of the 60,000 ground troops sent to Bosnia four years ago, it will be providing only 14% of KFOR.
Jane's Defence Weekly 9.6.99; JAC Lewis 23.6.99.